A world premier is clinched

With The Merchant of Venice up and running in the Main house and Danny Boy in the Dixon Studio, it's been a week for catching up on planning and paperwork at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff.

Julius Green (of the Palace's controlling company Green and Lenegan) and I have been concluding negotiations with the agent who represents the estate of Noel Coward. This will enable us to present the world premier of Coward's play Volcano.

A world premier is always a special event and it is with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that I approach it as director.

The same agent represents Robin Hawdon (creator of Don't Dress For Dinner) and we succeed in something of a double whammy by also obtaining the rights for the UK premier of Robin's new farce Perfect Wedding.

The first thing anyone ever said to me about programming at Westcliff was: "You must do thrillers in the summer!". . . and I'd hate to disappoint!

Four thrillers (including two Agatha Christies) will be produced over the summer by my old friend John Newman of Newpalm productions, who operates out of our neighbouring theatre the Civic, Chelmsford.

Co-productions and exchanges with the other repertory theatres are a major feature of our programming strategy.

We will welcome the first of these in three weeks' time when the Northcott Theatre, Exeter's production of Sense and Sensibility arrives.

On Monday I popped over to the Churchill Theatre Bromley to see Simon Ward and Christopher Blake in the first week of their pre-West End tour of a brand new thriller Mindgame, which arrives here next week.

Afterwards, we all went for a drink with the playwright Anthony Horowitz.

As writer of TV's Poirot series he's no stranger to thriller genre, although his play owes more to Silence of the Lambs than to Agatha Christie! I can't give too much away, but thriller fans will not be disappointed.

On Wednesday, I was summoned to the theatre for a strategy meeting about sponsorship.

Although our theatre is now on a firm financial footing, there is always a need for more money.

Our programme of sign interpreted and audio-described performances has proved hugely popular, but we need to find a new sponsor for it in time for the summer.

There was some good news on the sponsorship front too. Our staunch supporters KeyMed have offered to sponsor a performance of the Merchant of Venice and the Palace Theatre Club will be making a generous contribution towards the production costs of Volcano.

On Friday I popped back to see Merchant.

The audience were very appreciative, and I am delighted that our experiment in bring in-house Shakespeare back to the Palace seems to have paid off.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.